Dear Dan,



The answers to your questions are “yes.” According to religious Jews, one who spills semen for naught has no portion in the World to Come and is considered a murderer.

It is the way of the Sages to scare people with punishments which will befall them from the Heavens. For, they feel, without fear — of a flesh-and-blood ruler or of the rule of the Heavens — society would degrade to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah.

But religious people tend to sow fear even in the private realm, in personal matters which harm no one. Thus did they do in the realm of sexuality and prohibited many things to a couple, and to have complete control, they even forbade masturbation to the individual. Since they could not enforce their rulings with judicial punishments, they found a solution in punishment from the Heavens.

Thus did they say: “It is forbidden for a man to hold his sexual organ to urinate, lest this led to sexual stimulation and to ejaculation for naught. Anyone who masturbates and ejaculates is liable to a death sentence from the Heavens; he is considered as one who has murdered” (Niddah 13a).

To emphasize how great the prohibition against masturbation is, the Sages stated that the generation of the Great Flood was punished for the sin of masturbation: “In hot liquid [semen] did they ruin the world, and in hot liquid [the waters of the flood] were they sentenced” (Sanhedrin 108b). The Sages also ruled that the generation of the Great Flood — who spilled their seed — have no portion in the World to Come (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:3).

This is the way of the Sages, to overstate and exaggerate prohibitions, even if all agree they are minor. The Shulchan Aruch writes: “It is forbidden to ejaculate for naught, and this sin is graver than all other transgressions of the Torah” (Even HaEzer 23:2). It is clear that the prohibition against masturbation is less grave than the prohibition on violating the Sabbath, but it is their way to scare and to exaggerate.

Another proof that the Sages customarily exaggerated to frighten people is found in their words in the Talmud: “Any who follows a woman in the river has no portion in the World to Come. Our rabbis taught: If a man counts out money from his hand into the hand of a woman so as to have the opportunity of gazing at her, even if he can vie in Torah and good deeds with Moses our teacher, he shall not escape the punishment of Gehinnom (Berachot 61a).

Maimonides writes as we do, that the Sages went on at length to frighten people. “The Sages had already warned, at length, about [sexual] thoughts and keeping away from that which would cause such. They went on at length to frighten he who hardens his sexual organ and he who ejaculates for naught. They made it clear that all this is forbidden, but they did not require lashes for anything of this nature” (Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 7:4).



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Dear Dana,



Halacha forbids male masturbation only, since the man must fulfill the commandment to be fruitful and multiply.

Though the woman bears most of the burden of having and raising children, according to Halacha she is exempt from the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, so women are not forbidden to masturbate.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Dear Tomer,



You are completely correct, but we were speaking in Chazal’s terms, according to which the woman does spill seed.

“If a woman spills seed first, she births a boy, and if the man spills seed first, she births a girl” (Niddah 25b).

“When a woman spill seed and gives birth — until she gives birth from the place where she spills seed [i.e., not a caesarian section] (Keritot 7b).

Chazal did not know the cycle of ovulation nor the cycle of blood. That is why the erroneously supposed what they did. See Pamphlet 7 for more details.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet